माल्यवतः सन्धिविषयकः उपदेशः

To the resounding boom of drums mingled with conches, mighty-armed Rāma, conqueror of enemy cities, was advancing on Laṅkā. Hearing that sound, Rāvaṇa, lord of the rākṣasas, sank into thought for a moment and then looked up at his ministers. Then the mighty king addressed them all, making the whole hall ring — that cruel lord of the rākṣasas, tormentor of the world — and without openly reproaching anyone he said: "I have heard what you have said about the crossing of this ocean and about Rāma's valour, strength and manhood. I know that you too are truly valiant in battle. Yet now, knowing Rāma's prowess, you only look at one another in silence." His words mix praise and blame: he calls his ministers truly valiant, yet mocks their silence as a sign of fear. "Without openly reproaching anyone" is a fine touch — he does not condemn them outright but taunts them by implication, unlike the open contempt he had shown Śuka and Sāraṇa. "Tormentor of the world" reminds us of his nature.

Then a very wise rākṣasa named Mālyavān, Rāvaṇa's maternal grandfather, heard his words and answered: "My king, a ruler well trained in the branches of learning, who follows sound policy, rules for a long time and brings his enemies under his control. One who makes peace with his enemies or fights them as the time demands, and so strengthens his own side, enjoys great sovereignty. A king who is losing ground, or one who is only equal to his enemy, should make peace; he should never despise an enemy, and only the stronger should make war. So, Rāvaṇa, I am in favour of peace with Rāma. Give him back Sītā, on whose account you are being attacked. All the divine seers and gandharvas wish him victory. Do not make an enemy of him; choose peace with him." Mālyavān's counsel is the heart of the classic doctrine of statecraft: peace, war, and knowing the right time for each. He does not attack Rāvaṇa directly but states general rules, so that the king may judge for himself. "A king who is losing ground" is pointed, for Mālyavān is hinting that Rāvaṇa is now such a king, and "only the stronger should make war" implies that Rāma is the stronger. That the divine seers and gandharvas stand on Rāma's side shows that the whole world is against Rāvaṇa. Coming from his mother's father, an elder of his own family and a well-wisher, the advice carries all the more weight. Only a king made humble by learning stands firm; Rāvaṇa's lack of humility will bring about his fall.

"The blessed Grandsire created just two sides, the gods and the asuras, with dharma and adharma as their supports. Dharma, we are told, is the side of the great immortals; adharma, rākṣasa, is the side of the rākṣasas and the asuras. When the Kṛta age prevailed, dharma swallowed adharma; when the Tiṣya age comes, adharma swallows dharma. As you roamed the worlds you destroyed great dharma and took up adharma, and that is why our enemies are stronger than we are. The adharma that has grown through your heedlessness is swallowing us like a serpent, while dharma, which fosters the gods, strengthens their side. Attached to the pleasures of the senses, doing whatever you pleased, you have caused great distress to the seers, who are like fire. Their power is as unassailable as a blazing fire; their minds are purified by austerity and they are devoted to upholding dharma. These twice-born men worship with the chief sacrifices, offer oblations into their fires with every care according to the rules, and recite the Vedas aloud. Overpowering the rākṣasas, they raise the sound of the Vedas, and the rākṣasas have scattered in every direction like clouds in the summer heat. The smoke rising from the fire-offerings of those fire-like seers spreads through the ten directions and saps the rākṣasas' vigour. The fierce austerities practised in holy places here and there by men firm in their vows torment the rākṣasas." Mālyavān's argument is spiritual: the root of strength is dharma, and by destroying dharma Rāvaṇa has destroyed his own strength. The mention of the ages shows the law of time, by which the power of dharma and adharma shifts from age to age. Adharma is a serpent that swallows the very one who nurtured it. The seers' austerity burns the rākṣasas without any weapon — a firm conviction of the Indian tradition. The strength of his words lies in this, that Mālyavān is a rākṣasa himself, no partisan of the enemy but an elder of Rāvaṇa's own family, and yet he admits the supremacy of dharma. "Our enemies are stronger than we" is a plain confession: it is the rākṣasas who are now weak, not the monkeys. Once the rākṣasas destroyed the seers' sacrifices; now the seers' austerity destroys them — the times have turned. For Mālyavān the threefold power of Vedic chant, Vedic study and the fire-offering is greater than the power of weapons. "Doing whatever you pleased" plainly condemns Rāvaṇa's wilfulness: a king who does what he likes, not what is right. So after the arguments of statecraft Mālyavān defends peace on the ground of dharma as well.

"You won a boon that gods, dānavas and yakṣas could not kill you; but men, monkeys, bears and the mighty cow-tailed apes, strong and firm in valour, have come here and are roaring. Seeing so many dreadful portents of every kind, I foresee the destruction of all the rākṣasas. Terrible, fearsome clouds with harsh thunder are raining hot blood on Laṅkā from every side. Tears fall from the weeping beasts of burden; the banners, soiled with dust and faded, no longer shine as they did. Beasts of prey, jackals and vultures howl most dreadfully, and they come into Laṅkā and gather in the pleasure-gardens. Dark women with yellowed teeth stand in front of people and laugh, and in dreams they talk to the householders and rob their homes. Dogs devour the offerings made in the houses; donkeys are born of cows, and mice of mongooses. Cats mate with leopards, pigs with dogs, and kiṃnaras with rākṣasas and men. White doves with red feet, driven by Time, roam about for the destruction of the rākṣasas. Mynas kept in houses, crying 'cīcī kūcī,' are beaten by quarrelsome birds and fall locked together. All the birds and beasts cry facing the sun. And Time, in the shape of a hideous, grotesque, shaven-headed man, dark and tawny, looks into every house again and again. These and other evil omens are appearing." The limit of his boon is the main argument here: Rāvaṇa held men and monkeys in such contempt that he never asked to be safe from them, and now it is they who have come, roaring at the gates of Laṅkā; the gap in his boon will be the door of his death. The long list of portents covers every part of nature — the sky, the beasts, the birds, women, homes. Clouds rain blood, animals weep, wild creatures enter the city, creatures of different kinds mate, birds fight: everywhere nature's order is inverted, the outward form of the destruction of dharma, for it was an ancient belief that when a king does wrong, nature herself is deranged. The dark women who rob houses in dreams are especially terrifying, like messengers of death. Creatures crying towards the sun is a well-known ill omen in the lore of signs, and the coming of the doves is inauspicious too. Time in human form — hideous, grotesque, shaven, dark and tawny — is Death made visible, counting the houses one by one. Mālyavān wants to convince Rāvaṇa by evidence he can see, since argument alone does not reach his ears, and "appearing" suggests how suddenly these omens have arisen.

"We believe Rāma to be Viṣṇu, who has taken on a human form; Rāghava, firm in valour, is no mere man. Make peace, Rāvaṇa, with Rāma, that king of men who built that most wonderful bridge across the ocean. Consider his deeds, weigh them well, and do what will be good for the future." Having said this and tested the mind of the lord of the rākṣasas once more, Mālyavān, strong and supreme in manhood among the best, looked at Rāvaṇa and fell silent. Mālyavān is the first rākṣasa to say plainly that Rāma is Viṣṇu, a proof of his wisdom. He advises what will be good in the future, looking far ahead. His silence is a waiting for Rāvaṇa's response; in the next sarga Rāvaṇa angrily rejects him.